I haven’t yet played these games and I’m wondering if they actually belong to the G1 continuity, mostly because of the presence of Grimlock. Wasn’t he created from scratch by wheeljack in the first season? He technically shouldn’t even exist for another 4 million years or so.

@Big McLargehuge- When War for Cybertron was first announced IT WAS suppose to be the official prequel story for G1 Transformers according to Hasbro.
This as since been changed after the fact. War for Cybertron and War for Cybertron are now the prequel events for the new series Transformers Prime.

Unfortunately because Prime came out after “War For” there is some loose connections between the two (Dark Energon is one).
I haven’t played “Fall for” so I don’t now if they’ve made a better effort to properly connect the two medias yet.

Good review, haven’t seen any content from you in a while. Also fun fact for you and James, today is the day Marty McFly timetraveled into the future in back to the future part 2. Just something I thought I’d share encase you didn’t know or forgot

Thank you for taking the time to do this review Mike – I’d heard about this game but don’t own any of the modern consoles so it was cool to hear about it from another Gen Xer who grew up with the series like many of us did. BTW, where those transformer toys from your personal collection? Very few of mine survived my childhood, lol.

I will say one thing though, I don’t think these games are intended to be connected to the G1 universe. I’m pretty sure its for the new series that’s out right now, that’s why you don’t hear the classic sounds and whatnot. However, the devs knew that diehard adult fans would want and play this game, so they threw in nice little homages to the original series and the 1986 movie. But the fact that they had their target audience and still managed to do a little fan service for us ye olde transformers fans, is pretty damn cool.

Great review Mike love the game.
Btw the ps3 freezing is normal (do to blu ray) but there are a few things that can be done to stop it 1.Make sure never to clean a ps3 game disc it will just make the problem worse 2. make sure the ps3 is in an open area so it can circulate air and maintain normal temperature and finally 3.If the freezing happens on certain games try deleting the download (not the save files) and reinstall. hope that helps again there is no 100% way to stop it but the 3 steps above normally take care of the problem.

I agree with the whole adding more elements into the game. Without that, it looks like what is essentially a typical third person shooter. I wouldn’t mind seeing some puzzles, yeah, but aside from that, what about some environmental destruction? That was what was so friggin awesome about Red Faction: Guerrilla Warfare. There’s nothing quite as fun as knocking down a sturdy building with explosives.

I think another issue most non-rpg games face today is linearity. People shouldn’t just be stuck following the same storyline throughout the entire game. Optional side missions and quests are really key to extending a game’s duration and replayability. I feel this game could have taken some lessons from the Infamous series where you get to choose whether you want to be good or evil, or in this case, autobot or decepticon.

I know this post is going long, but I have to mention this idea… What about doing a multiplayer game online with the transformers and taking elements from Battlefield 3. I would say to keep it third person as this game is, but make it take place on Earth… Instead of getting into vehicles, players can scan a vehicle and transform into it. You could have tanks, jets, helicopters, cars or just straight up transformers depending on the map. I would buy it in a heartbeat considering how long BF3 lasted for me. What you guys think?

You should get a new PS3. The older models tend to crash because they run so freaking hot . But hell if it still works save your cash and hit that reset button. Keep up the stellar reviews Mike..I think you should take over the newer game realm. That would be tits. Rock On

A while back I gave you heck for your review of C.H.U.D. And I admit going back and rereading it, I went a little over the top. So let me just show that I am at least even handed in my comments and considerations by saying…

This was an excellent review!

You nailed all the key points of the game, and your thoughts on it’s connections with past movies and incarnations was spot on. I now want this game.

Seriously, one of the best reviews I have seen of a game of this type in a long time.

There are actually quite a few out of place characters in this game compared to the G1 cannon. As already mentioned Grimlock and the Dinobots were not created until after they Transformers were on Earth, but the same is true for the Combaticons. They were created by Starscream to be his army against Megatron, in the episode Starscream’s Brigade, and Metroplex did not appear until after the Movie.

mike, you lucky mother fucker. ive got the same model ps3 and mine yellow lighted and broke down recently . nice review i was interested in this game before my ps3 broke down, I prefer these kind of games heavily on a console as opposed to PC or id have gotten it on steam.

Well the newer versions of G1 by Dreamwave and IDW were sort of a combined version of the original G1 comic book and G1 cartoon. In the G1 comics the Dinobots came from Cybertron and were only converted to dinosaurs on Earth. The Constructicons were opposite, in the cartoon they were from Cybertron but in the comics they were built on Earth. In the Dreamwave and IDW versions both groups came from Cybertron. There is no “correct” canon since the original comic and cartoon were being created at the same time. Bruticus also came from Cybertron in the comic. And actually, you could argue the point in the cartoon since their brains all came from Cybertron. Maybe when Starscream put them into the Earth military vehicles their robot forms were patterened after their original Cybertronian forms. Who’s to say?

Let me just say this, you DONT really have to be a die hard Transformers fan to get this game, i have only seen bits and pieces of the G1 series, G2, and those series. The only full series i have seen are the Unicron Trilogy in the early 2000s, Beast Wars. Beast Machines and Transformers: Prime and i LOVE both of these game TO DEATH!!

I read somewhere that Transformers: Prime is supposed to be the new canon/continuity, basically overwriting all of the classic G1, and that these games are part of the Prime universe. If that’s true, the next game (if there’s one) should detail the arrival on Earth and we’ll get to see everyone take on their new vehicle modes.

Actually, both War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron are set in the current Aligned continuity family. Because this game is set in that universe, there are several ties to the Transformers: Prime cartoon while also making some nods to the G1 cartoon. Also, Mirage does not exist in the current continuity and Cliffjumper’s exploits in this game get mentioned in the Prime series. On the technical side of things, you only need to go through the installation process once; to go back to the game, you just need to sit through a loading screen.

As a side note, Transformers as a whole is more than just G1 and the live-action movies. You can find more information on that here: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page